A program on NPR yesterday afternoon took a roundtable approach to air issues about climate change.

One participant was a woman who was skeptical of climate change claims to the point of sarcasm.

And there were some others, but the moderator seemed to have a hard time defining the scope of the discussion.

At one point, talk turned to a court case. Apparently, a prominent climate scientist has sued a commentator for libel, contending that the commentator called his work fraudulent, among other things, and that his career was damaged as a result.

I don't know about all that. But the skeptical woman said that any and everything said about climate change should be up for a good verbal fight.

No doubt that's one approach, and if a prominent climate scientist puts himself into the public light, he gives up a lot of his rights to limit discussion about himself.

In fact, he will priobably lose, and he could actually earn just a summary judgment tossing the suit out.

I doubt that the case will ever get to the point where the lawyers will be asked to prove the truth of climate change, which is what the program hinged upon.